


Ash

by life_not_knife



Category: EXO (Band), SHINee
Genre: Angst, M/M, dystopian au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-29
Updated: 2016-06-29
Packaged: 2018-07-19 00:13:59
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 832
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7336864
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/life_not_knife/pseuds/life_not_knife
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>‘The man before him with his pink hair, plump lips and tanned skin is everything Taemin has ever wanted.’</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ash

**Author's Note:**

  * For [thewriterpoe](https://archiveofourown.org/users/thewriterpoe/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Two Years](https://archiveofourown.org/works/6930730) by [thewriterpoe](https://archiveofourown.org/users/thewriterpoe/pseuds/thewriterpoe). 



> Hey guys, it’s been a while right? Not much Taekai from me recently but that is because I took part in the pretty boy exchange and it turned out about 10,000 words so…just wait patiently until it is posted I guess. Anyway, I was re-reading my lovely friend: thewriterpoe’s stories again and I was inspired to write this based on her flash fic ‘Two Years’ (go check it out, it is phenominal).
> 
> Anyway, without further ado – enjoy!

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

As the world outside was burning in fire and ash, the two men in the room were anything but. Cold, stale. Taemin didn’t like that one bit. The man before him with his pink hair, plump lips and tanned skin is everything Taemin has ever wanted. He thought that this reunion would be the best thing that ever happened to him. He expected Jongin to come back with the same deep ache and need for closeness that still lay in his own chest. He was wrong. Those caramel eyes were the same, still looking at him however, they were different. Taemin didn’t feel himself drowning in them, he didn’t find them sparkling with mischief or love or affection. Instead, behind those hazel eyes there was an emptiness, a pain and a sorrow.

Taemin moves forward, his fingers itching and shifting against his palms as he tries not to reach out, not to push Jongin up against the nearest wall like he once would. He notices the stern expression on his long lost lover’s face and wonders what must have happened to take away his Nini. To expel the boyish smirks and clowning personality, to kill the very soul that Taemin fell in love with.

It should be easy, to move on and forget now that Jongin has clearly changed but Taemin can’t. His own blonde tresses fall in front of his eyes as he wills the constricting feeling in his chest to disappear and the tears in his eyes not to fall. He doesn’t succeed, he was never the strong one, never the brave one – not like Jongin. Whenever he looks at Jongin’s frame, clad in military wear and hair grown out from the lack of a recent haircut, the pang in his chest aches further. All his mind can see are the memories they once shared. The laughter and even the squabbles. He remembers the first time they made love, how Jongin’s skilful hips rolled against his own. How the stretch felt both scary and amazing as every nerve ending in his body was set alight with the fire of passion that Jongin burned into his skin with every touch, kiss and loving gaze.

It’s all gone now and Taemin can’t stop the sob from wracking his body as his knees give way and he crouches on the dusty floor. The carpet of his home, once a dazzling white is now trampled, speckled and layered in a thick soot from the raging fires just beyond his window.

“What happened Jongin?” He asks between hiccupping sobs.

“The real world happened Taemin” and the older male flinches at the cold tone and the severe lack of his nickname in Jongin’s sentence. Through blurry eyes Taemin finds himself watching as the black combat boots walk away from him. His eyes shift up to see a blur of Jongin’s khaki jumpsuit and heavy artillery belt as he walks away, drawing his gun and stepping out into the blazing city.

Hope. Hope is what kept Taemin going all of these times. The hope that this atrocity will be over soon, that Jongin will come back to him in one piece, that their love will prevail even if this entire wretched world falls into the depths of hell and is obliterated. It would be okay because they would be together. Like Jongin once promised him, they would always be together through the good or the bad.

“I signed up today” Taemin remembers hearing as he was washing the dishes. The colour instantly draining from his face and the plate in his hand dropping with a crash against the linoleum floor. Jongin had stood there, his eyes apologetic but a sense of determination in his features. Taemin had been angry, hurt and felt betrayed. He takes it all back now, as he sees the still blurry sight of his front door closing with a clatter, the crackling of flames disappearing. He crawls on his knees, the soot being kicked up by his own limbs as it rises and chokes him, a coughing fit wracking his body. He pulls himself up by the too-hot brass handle of his door, spluttering as he stands on unsecured feet. He opens the door with gusto, just like Jongin had done not a minute earlier and faces the destroyed world at his feet. Without another thought he steps out, heading for the familiar jumpsuit and the muscular frame that embodies it. Then he feels it, a searing pain as it burns away every inch of skin from his body, the pain intensifies until he blacks out.

A body lies in the middle of the wasteland, burning bright and turning slowly to ash, becoming part of the landscape that surrounds it. A familiar figure stands beside it, crying, hands shaking. Regret can make you do stupid things and the man in the khaki jumpsuit takes out his gun, places it at his temple and crumples unceremoniously beside his lover’s ash ridden body.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

**Author's Note:**

> So this is short and sweet, for me at least. This was inspired by Adhi’s fic: Two Years. Which you need to go and read since it inspired this piece so much! I am trying to condense my writing recently. Trying to convey things in less words. I don’t know if it worked but I still liked this anyway. Also, this is a late birthday present for Adhi…like a couple of weeks late, sorry my dear.
> 
> Anyway, thoughts, comments, likes, upvotes, kudos, subscribers…all that jazz would be really appreciated.
> 
> Until next time,
> 
> Xx L xX


End file.
